Quite Frankly, You Will Never Cease To Amaze Me
by Little Miss Elizabeth
Summary: When Alanna returns to Corus, her friends ask her about some of the rumours that have been going around... Please R & R


Disclaimer: Anything you recognise belongs to Tamora Pierce, I'm just borrowing it.

Quite Frankly, You Will Never Cease To Amaze Me

It wasn't until the next morning when Alanna was fencing with Geoffrey in her practice courts that her fellow knights began to tell her more of what was going on in their own lives.

"Tell me more about your time with the Bazhir – the Sand-Runners, wasn't it?" She asked as she dodges Geoffrey's sword and snaked it out of his hand, twisting Lightening in the same move to rest o the bridge o his nose.

"Well," Raoul drawled, now used to his friend's impressive skills, "They told me many tales, including that of the Burning-Brightly One…" He trailed off but looked pointedly at Alanna, who fidgeted under his gaze.

"What?" Garry demanded, confused at his friends' odd behaviour.

"Alanna here is a legend!" Raoul cried triumphantly but none too soon. She hit him with Lightning's flat edge. "Oww!"

"Really?" Garry set aside his paper work and Geoffrey stared. Alanna turned bright red and mumbled something under her breath.  
"What was that?" Raoul was grinning now, obviously enjoying her discomfort.

"Yes." Alanna's face now matched her hair.

"As what? When? How?" Gary demanded. Geoffrey just gaped, his mouth wide open. She took a deep breath – again.

"There is a tale among the Bazhir of the Burning-Brightly One and the Night One who freed them from the Black City." At their blank look she elaborated, "The Ysandir, the Nameless Ones who bewitched them."

The three men remember the tales to them on their trip to Persopolis when Alanna was merely a page.

"Well, Jon and I destroyed them and we fitted the description so -" she shrugged "-it just happened." They continued to stare at her in awe.

"That's one rumour confirmed," said Geoffrey glumly.

"What rumours?" Alanna asked as they slowly walked out of the practice courts.

"That you're ten feet tall." She snorted.

"Unlikely to happen any time soon."

"That you're learning Shang."

"That one's true."

"Really?" Raoul, Gary and Geoffrey stopped and she turned around.

"From the Shang Dragon?" Gary whispered.

"Of course from Liam. Except," she grumbled, "he insists on calling my 'Kitten'." Raoul gave a snort of laughter and Alanna - rather uncharacteristically - giggled.

"Why?' Geoffrey demanded.

"Well," she replied dryly, "If I'm known as the Lioness and I am so _small_…" She trailed off at the looks of mirth on their faces. His voice choked with laughter, Gary told her another one:

"Some say that you were chosen by the Goddess and that she visits you." He chuckled before being cut off by Alanna,

"True."

"What?" She had their attention now. She gave a resigned sigh. "I was chosen by the Goddess. She started to visit me when I was a squire and also gave me Faithful and the Ember Stone. But I called on her when Jon was ill first…" None of them had blinked.

"The Goddess visits you?"

"Yes," she shifted uncomfortably. "Please ask me something else?"

"Okay." Geoffrey squeaked but Raoul once again cut him off.

"There's one that you and Jon were lovers." Alanna stiffened.

"But you don't need to answer -"

"It's true."

"Whaat!?!"

She gave a small smile, almost a smirk, at their expressions. This quickly escalated to such fits of laughter that she had to lean against the wall to support her.

"Your faces," she choked as Jonathon himself walked in one the four.

"What is wrong with you?" The King held out a helping hand to his champion.

"You were lovers?" Gary seemed to have finally found his voice.

"You told?" Jon wailed at Alanna, who merely laughed at her friend.

"It's true!?!" Geoffrey gasped and Jon chuckled, Raoul and Gary just staring at him.

"Since I was a squire." Alanna piped up.

"Then," Raoul stared at her too, "You're going to be Queen."

"No." She said awkwardly, and then smiled apologetically up at where Jon towered above her. "We fought about that when he came to the Bazhir and we're just friends." She looked slyly at him. "Anyway, now he has -" She couldn't finish as Jon's hand clamped over her mouth. Instinctively, she grabbed his arm and threw him over her hip into the dust. She grinned maniacally down at him with satisfaction.

"And that's your weakness?" Gary asked in awe. Alanna ignored him.

"You could have been Queen?" Raoul's voice squeaked on the last word.

"Depends what I'd be Queen of." Alanna winked.

"George." Raoul's eyes went wide as he realised that was whom she was referring to.

"And Liam Ironarm." Jon added, not even trying to conceal the smirk spreading across his face though he still sat on the ground, sullying his expensive tunic and breeches.

"The Shang Dragon?" Geoffrey's voice cracked in surprise. Alanna looked at him sharply as a twinkle came into her bright purple yes, "Who else?"

"Alanna the Lioness," Gary said, helping Jon up, "Quite frankly, you will never cease to amaze me." The others nodded in agreement. Alanna laughed and, shaking her head at his words, walked back to her rooms.


End file.
